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A roguelike is a game built around procedural generation and permanent death: each run creates a new layout, and when you die, that run is over. You play one by starting a fresh run, learning from what killed you, and repeating. The genre suits players who enjoy high difficulty, short sessions, and steady improvement through repetition rather than a single long save file. The name comes from Rogue (1980), a dungeon-crawling game that established these conventions.

The Core Mechanics

Most definitions of roguelike trace back to the "Berlin Interpretation," a set of design factors that includes procedural generation, permadeath, turn-based play, grid-based movement, and complex systems that interact with each other. In practice, modern games pick and choose from that list, so it helps to know the two mechanics that matter most.

Procedural generation

Levels, item drops, and enemy placement are assembled by the game rather than hand-authored. You can't memorize a fixed map, so each run forces you to read the situation in front of you. A dungeon you cleared yesterday may open with a different layout and a different set of threats today.

Permanent death

When your character dies, the run ends and you start over from the beginning. Progress usually lives in your knowledge — which enemy patterns are dangerous, which items combine well — rather than in a saved character. This is what makes each decision carry weight: a careless move costs the whole run, not a reload.

Roguelike vs. Roguelite

The two terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different amounts of carryover between runs.

Neither is better. A pure roguelike rewards mastery of a fixed rule set; a roguelite gives you a reason to keep playing even when a run goes badly, because you're still earning something.

Common Subgenres

• Dungeon crawlers — descend through floors, fight monsters, manage inventory. This is the closest branch to the original Rogue.
• Deckbuilders — you build a card deck during the run and fight with it; death resets the deck.
• Action roguelikes — real-time combat with dodging and positioning instead of turn-based moves.
• Shooters and arcade hybrids — fast runs, twitch reflexes, short session length.

How to Start Playing

1. Pick a class or starting loadout. Many roguelikes let you choose before the run begins. A straightforward melee or ranged class is easier to learn than a complex caster.
2. Check the difficulty setting. Some games let you tune difficulty before you descend. If you're new to the genre, start lower — you can raise it once the basics feel natural.
3. Play the first run to learn, not to win. Expect to die. Treat the early runs as reconnaissance: note what enemies do, what items are worth picking up, and where you tend to get cornered.
4. Change one thing per run. If you died to a specific enemy, focus that run on handling it. Incremental adjustments beat trying to fix everything at once.
5. Accept the reset. When a run ends, the next one starts fresh. The only thing you carry forward is what you learned.

Common sticking points

• Dying early and often. This is the design, not a sign you're playing wrong. Early deaths are the fastest way to learn enemy behavior.
• Trying to hoard resources. In many roguelikes, an unused item is a wasted item. Use what you find.
• Ignoring the map or minimap. Knowing where you've been and where exits are prevents backtracking into danger.
• Skipping difficulty options. If a game offers them, using them isn't cheating — it's pacing.

Where to Play

Browser-based roguelikes let you start in a single click with no install or account. The Lich's Dungeon on Games by Will is one example: a fantasy roguelike where you choose your class, set your difficulty, and descend into cursed halls to fight waves of undead, seeing how long you survive before the dungeon claims you. It's listed alongside other browser games on the same site, including text adventures and strategy titles, so you can sample the genre without committing to a download.

Larger roguelikes and roguelites are widely available on PC and console storefronts, and many have demos. If you're unsure whether you'll enjoy permadeath, a browser game is the lowest-commitment way to find out.

"Indie" means independent: work made by individuals or small teams who control their own creative and business decisions, rather than by studios owned or funded by major publishers. In games, that usually means a small team (often 1–10 people) self-publishing or working with a small label; in software, it means a developer or tiny company shipping a tool without a large corporate parent. The label describes who holds control, not budget, genre, or quality — a polished indie game can outsell a AAA title, and a rough one can still be fully independent.

The core meaning: independence of control

The defining question is not "how many people made this?" but "who decides what gets made and shipped?"

• Independent: the creators set scope, deadlines, pricing, and creative direction. Funding may come from savings, crowdfunding, early access sales, or small grants — but no publisher owns the project.
• Not independent: a studio owned by or contractually bound to a major publisher, where an external party controls budget, milestones, or release timing.

A solo developer using a publisher only for marketing and console porting can still be indie, because the publisher isn't directing the design. A 200-person studio bankrolled and owned by a large company is not, even if its game looks quirky.

Indie games vs. AAA and mainstream software

The same split exists in software. An indie developer might ship a focused tool — a text editor, a note-taking app, a small utility — while a large vendor ships a suite with enterprise contracts. Indie software tends to be narrower in scope and closer to one person's workflow.

Common traits of indie work

• Small teams wearing many hats. The same person may code, design, and handle support.
• Self-publishing as the default. Storefronts like itch.io and Steam let creators release without a publisher.
• Creative risk. Niche genres, experimental mechanics, and personal themes are more viable when you don't need to satisfy a large marketing department.
• Direct audience contact. Devlogs, Discord servers, and social posts replace big ad budgets.
• Tighter scope. Indie projects usually cut features to finish, rather than expanding to fill a budget.

Recognizable examples

In games, titles like Braid, Minecraft (in its early independent phase), Celeste, and Hollow Knight are commonly cited as indie successes — small teams, self-directed, and commercially significant. In software, tools such as Neovim and Vim sit in the independent/open-source tradition: maintained by small groups of contributors rather than a single large vendor, and shaped by their users' needs.

These examples matter because they show the range: indie can mean a two-person puzzle game or a community-maintained code editor. What they share is control by the makers.

How to get started

If you want to make indie work:

1. Pick a scope you can finish in weeks, not years — a single mechanic or a single utility.
2. Choose a toolchain you already know. For games, that might be a general engine; for software, a language and editor you're comfortable in.
3. Ship something small publicly (itch.io for games, a repository or package registry for software) to learn the release process.
4. Talk about the work as you build it — devlogs and posts build an audience before launch.

If you want to find indie work:

• Browse itch.io for games and small tools, and Steam's indie sections for released titles.
• Follow developer communities and devlogs to see projects before release.
• Check open-source repositories for maintainers who welcome contributions.

A quick way to tell if something is indie

Ask two questions: Who controls the creative decisions? and Who owns the result? If the answer is "the people who made it," it's indie — regardless of team size, budget, or how polished it looks.

Kenney is a game asset and tool provider that offers thousands of completely free game assets, plus open source Starter Kits for learning game development. You can download individual free assets, buy an all-in-one package that bundles everything with free updates, or use Kenney's tools to create 3D models without deep knowledge of complex software or frameworks. It fits best if you need ready-made art and quick-start project templates for common game engines, and you want to spend your time on game logic rather than asset creation.

What Kenney actually provides

Kenney's site organizes its offering into a few clear categories:

• Games – finished or experimental game projects.
• Tools – software for creating assets, including 3D model creation aimed at people without complex software or framework knowledge.
• Assets – the core offering: thousands of completely free game assets you can use in your projects.
• Starter Kits – free and open source project templates covering various game genres, designed to help you kickstart your next game.

The site also mentions a Knowledge Base and Support section, which is where you'd look for troubleshooting and usage guidance.

Free assets vs. the all-in-one package

The most important distinction for a new user is between the free downloads and the paid bundle.

The site states plainly that there are "thousands of completely free game assets for you to use," and separately offers the all-in-one package for downloading everything at once with free updates. If you only need a handful of sprites or models, start with the free downloads. If you expect to work on several projects, the all-in-one route saves repeated searching and downloading.

Using a Starter Kit to begin a project

Learning game development can be a daunting task, which is the problem the Starter Kits are built to solve. They are free and open source, and they cover various game genres.

A practical workflow looks like this:

1. Pick a genre close to your idea – the Starter Kits are organized by genre, so choose the one that matches the game you want to build.
2. Download the kit – it's free and open source, so you can inspect and modify it.
3. Open it in your engine – the assets are intended to work with most game engines, so you can bring the kit into the engine you already use.
4. Replace or extend the assets – swap in other Kenney assets or your own art as your project grows.
5. Verify – run the kit as-is first to confirm your engine and project setup work before changing anything.

The expected result is a running project skeleton in your chosen genre, so you spend your early time on mechanics and level design instead of building a project structure from scratch.

Compatibility and tools

Kenney states that its tools let you create 3D models without knowledge of complex software or frameworks, and that results "can be used in most game engines." That phrasing matters: the assets and tool output are positioned as engine-agnostic rather than tied to one platform. Before committing to a large asset set, confirm the file formats your engine accepts and test one asset end to end.

The tools are described as available "at a very affordable price," which indicates they are a paid product separate from the free assets. The site does not list specific prices in the material available here, so check the Tools page directly for current pricing.

Where to get help

If something doesn't work as expected, the site points to two resources:

• Knowledge Base – for documented answers and guidance.
• Support – for direct help.

There is also a newsletter you can subscribe to for updates on new assets and releases.

How to decide if Kenney fits your project

Choose Kenney's free assets if you need a broad, no-cost art library and want to prototype quickly across genres. Choose the all-in-one package if you'd rather download once and receive updates. Choose the Starter Kits if your main obstacle is not art but not knowing how to structure a game project. Look at the Tools if you specifically need to produce 3D models and want a simpler path than full 3D software. In every case, start with one small download or one Starter Kit, get it running in your engine, and expand from there.

Retro gaming is the practice of playing older video games — typically from the 1970s through the early 2000s — on original hardware, through emulation, or via official re-releases. It is defined less by a fixed year cutoff than by a combination of era, hardware generation, and design style. If you want to start, the practical path is: pick a platform generation, choose how you want to play (original hardware, emulation, or a modern re-release), then solve the two problems that trip up most beginners — display lag and region locking.

What "Retro" Actually Means

There is no single agreed cutoff, and the term shifts as time passes. A useful way to think about it is in three layers:

• Era — games from roughly the late 1970s to the early 2000s, before HD displays and online distribution became standard.
• Hardware generation — cartridge and early disc consoles: NES, SNES, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Boy, PlayStation, and similar machines.
• Design style — pixel art, limited sprites and color palettes, chiptune audio, and often high difficulty with limited or no save systems.

A game can feel "retro" in style even if it is new. GGGames.se, an enthusiast site covering both modern and retro games, frames its coverage around exactly this split — "Modern and Retro" — and its review of QUOD INIT EXIT IIo covers a game that is new but built in a deliberately old-school style. That is a good illustration of why style matters as much as release date.

The Main Retro Platforms

Each generation has its own quirks — controller design, region coding, and video output all differ — so it helps to pick one platform to start rather than trying to cover everything at once.

Three Ways to Play, and How to Choose

Original hardware

You buy the actual console and cartridges or discs. This gives the most authentic experience, including original controllers and timing. The trade-offs are cost, aging hardware (worn cartridge slots, failing disc drives), and the need for a compatible display.

Emulation

Software runs the game on a modern computer or device. This is the most flexible and often the cheapest route, and it makes save states and region-free play easy. The catch is that the legal status of ROMs varies by country, and reliable sources matter — avoid sketchy download sites.

Official re-releases and compilations

Publishers and platforms reissue classic games on modern systems, sometimes with save states, rewind, and display options. This is the lowest-friction option if you want to play legally and without setup. Availability changes over time, so check the current store listing for the specific title you want.

A simple decision rule: if you want authenticity and don't mind maintenance, go original hardware. If you want convenience and flexibility, go emulation or official re-releases.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Display lag — modern TVs can add input delay that makes precise retro games feel wrong. A low-latency mode or a dedicated upscaler helps.
• Region locks — many older consoles only play games from their own region. Check before buying imports.
• Unreliable ROM sources — unofficial download sites carry legal and security risks. Prefer official re-releases where they exist.
• Assuming "old" means "cheap" — some retro hardware and cartridges are collectible and priced accordingly.

A Practical Starting Path

1. Pick one platform generation that appeals to you.
2. Decide how you want to play: original hardware, emulation, or an official re-release.
3. If using original hardware, sort out your display and check region compatibility.
4. Start with a well-regarded title for that platform rather than a rare or expensive one.
5. Expect higher difficulty and fewer conveniences than modern games — that is part of the design, not a flaw.

If you are unsure where to begin, following a site that covers both modern and retro games — like GGGames.se — can help you find reviews and context for older titles alongside current releases.